Sentencing review to see fewer offenders jailed

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke's overhaul of sentencing powers is expected to see fewer offenders behind bars and a greater focus on cutting reoffending.

Payment by results will be piloted along with proposals to involve the private and voluntary sector in running tougher community sentences.

The sentencing Green Paper, set to be published this week, will aim to stop the revolving door of crime and reoffending and help reduce the near-record prison population of more than 85,000 by 3,000 by 2014.

Three in four criminals offend again within nine years and 40 per cent commit another offence within 12 months, the latest figures show.

The Government is planning 'extremely serious changes' to sentencing, Mr Clarke warned last month.

'The biggest thing that we're addressing in the current system, where we have an enormous prison population, sentences have got much longer than they used to, and all the rest of it, is the rate of reoffending,' he said.

Pilot projects, such as the heron wing at Feltham young offenders institution in south west London, are already helping 15 to 17-year-olds to turn their lives around.

Policing and Criminal Justice Minister Nick Herbert said charitable groups were brought in to help the offenders get into education, training or employment.

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They are paid by results, with cash payments made if the young person starts education or work, fulfils probation demands and stays out of trouble.

The unit has a re-conviction rate of 14 per cent over one year, one of the lowest rates nationwide, compared with a national average of 78 per cent over two years for young offenders.

'It makes sense because it is a way of unlocking investment in rehabilitation without increasing the cost to the public purse,' Mr Herbert said.

The heron wing at Feltham young offenders institution has been a successful pilot project in reducing levels of youth re-offending

'Everybody wins. Society wins because these young offenders go straight, there is less criminality and people are safer. The taxpayer wins too because the cost of reoffending is huge.'

Other proposals include curtailing judges' powers so that indefinite sentences, currently being served by more than 6,000 prisoners, will be reserved for only the most serious of offenders.

The controversial indeterminate sentence for public protection, described by the Prison Reform Trust as 'one of the least carefully planned and implemented pieces of legislation in the history of British sentencing', is expected to be restricted to only those jailed for 10 years or more.

Reductions in sentences for those who plead guilty early are also expected, along with a push for fewer defendants to be sent to custody on remand.

Short-term sentences are to be kept, but fewer will be handed down as they are expected to be used mainly for serious first time offenders or when other options for repeat offenders have been exhausted.

Prisons will also be made places of hard work as part of efforts to prepare offenders more effectively for the outside world.

There will also be a greater focus on victims along with measures designed to tackle drug and alcohol addiction and mental illness.

And Mr Herbert has said community sentences cannot be seen as a weak option if the Government's rehabilitation revolution is to succeed.

They 'must be strengthened' so they punish offenders, help rehabilitate them and get them out of the criminal justice system, he said.

The Ministry of Justice has said a 'more intelligent approach' is needed, with the most dangerous offenders being locked up while ensuring courts 'have the power to make the right response to stop people committing crime'.